Equipment Funding Beyond the NDIS: CAPS, DVA and More

The NDIS is not the only way to fund assistive equipment in Australia, and for a lot of people it is not the right way either. Several other programs pay for aids, equipment, and modifications, each aimed at a different group. If you are outside the NDIS, or a scheme like aged care fits your situation better, these are the routes worth knowing.

The theme across all of them is separation. Each program has its own eligibility, its own application, and its own funding rules, so the trick is matching yourself to the right one rather than assuming the NDIS covers everything.

CAPS: help with continence products

The Continence Aids Payment Scheme, known as CAPS, is an Australian Government payment that helps eligible people with permanent and severe incontinence meet the cost of continence products. Rather than supplying items, it pays a set amount each year, which recipients can take as a single annual payment or split across the year.

CAPS is a separate program with its own rules and its own application process - NDIS rules do not apply to it. The payment is not backdated, so it is calculated from the date a complete application is received, and it is not counted as taxable income. Eligibility for CAPS is decided by the program itself. The official program pages have the current criteria and application forms.

Support at Home and the AT-HM scheme

For older Australians, the main route is aged care. The Support at Home program includes an Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme, usually shortened to AT-HM, which funds equipment and home changes as part of the aged care system.

AT-HM works in tiers. Assessors can approve assistive technology funding, home modification funding, or both at low, medium, or high levels, decided during an aged care assessment and recorded in the person’s support plan. The tier reflects the cost and complexity of what is needed, with the higher tiers reserved for more expensive items and backed by more evidence. People who moved across from an earlier home care package are generally expected to use up any unspent package funds first.

The key point is jurisdiction. AT-HM sits inside aged care, follows aged care rules, and is assessed through the aged care pathway, not the NDIS one. For someone aged over the scheme’s cut-off who is not already a participant, aged care, not the NDIS, is the pathway to look into. Whether any support is provided is decided by that program, through its own assessment.

DVA’s Rehabilitation Appliances Program

Veterans have their own pathway through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The Rehabilitation Appliances Program, or RAP, supplies aids, equipment, and home or vehicle modifications to help eligible veterans live safely and independently at home.

Access runs through a health professional. Eligibility rests on an assessed clinical need plus holding a relevant Veteran Card, and a GP or referred practitioner assesses the need, prescribes the item, and arranges supply through a contracted provider. The catch to avoid is buying first: purchasing an item without that prior clinical assessment and prescription risks not being reimbursed. The program covers a broad range, from mobility and continence products to hearing, vision, and respiratory devices, as set out in its national schedule.

State and territory schemes

Alongside the national programs, each state and territory runs its own equipment scheme. The details vary by jurisdiction, and each carries its own eligibility rules and application process.

These schemes matter most for people who sit outside the NDIS and aged care, or who need a stop-gap while another application is in train. Because the rules differ from state to state, the reliable move is to check what your own state or territory offers directly rather than assuming it mirrors a neighbour.

How these schemes differ from the NDIS

It helps to see what sets these programs apart from the NDIS, because the differences shape which door is open to you. The NDIS is built around individual plans and the reasonable and necessary test. The programs here each run on their own logic instead.

CAPS pays a set yearly amount towards continence products rather than weighing up each item. AT-HM sits inside aged care and works in fixed tiers decided at an aged care assessment. The DVA program runs through a veteran’s card and a prescribing health professional. State schemes set their own rules again. What none of them share is the NDIS structure of goals, budgets, and plan management.

That separation is the practical headline. You do not mix and match freely across these programs, and being eligible for one says nothing about being eligible for another. The reliable approach is to identify the scheme built for your situation, read its official pages, and apply on its terms rather than expecting it to behave like the NDIS.

Matching yourself to the right scheme

Work from your own situation outward. Your age, whether you are a veteran, whether you already hold an NDIS plan, and where you live all point towards different doors. The schemes are not built to double-fund the same item, so the goal is finding the one that fits, then applying on its terms.

The Other Schemes & Aged Care guide collects these programs in one place, and how NDIS funding works explains the scheme these all sit beside. When you are ready to choose an item, how to buy assistive equipment covers the practical side whichever scheme you use.

Whether a particular purchase can be claimed under any of these programs depends on the program’s own rules and your eligibility for it. Check the official program pages, or ask the program directly, before you buy.